RAISING DIGITAL KIDS
Be Smart,
Be Safe
— by Mike Daugherty
A Parents Guide
to Cybersecurity
W
hen we think about
keeping our family safe
online, the conversation
usually focuses on the content on the
screens of their favorite devices. Is what
they are watching appropriate? What
have they been searching online? Who
are they messaging and are they who
they say they are?
One of the biggest threats to your
family’s safety is one that many families
tend to overlook: hackers.
Imagine a scenario where someone
has gained control of your bank account
and transferred your money to various
accounts across the globe. Consider the
damage if a hacker used your child’s so-
cial security number to open credit cards
and make fraudulent purchases. It might
not be discovered for years. Their credit
would be ruined before they were even
old enough to understand what credit is.
Unfortunately, social security numbers
and similar information are prime tar-
gets for that exact reason.
three passwords we use for everything.
The problem comes when a website gets
breached, and your information is shared
online. Hackers have sophisticated soft-
ware will use leaked information to at-
tempt to login to thousands of popular
sites at once. The email address and pass-
word you used to sign up for an online
music subscription could give hackers ac-
cess to your email. There are a few rules to
follow when creating a new password that
can ensure it will not easily be decoded.
The longer, the better - Create a
password longer than eight charac-
ters. Many experts suggest using a
phrase or short sentence instead of a
traditional password. Short sentenc-
es will make your password easier
to remember and highly secure.
Include special characters - Sym-
bols such as the exclamation point,
the dollar sign, or even a space will
greatly increase the strength of the
password.
At a recent event I attended, agents
from the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tions (FBI) categorized hackers into
two groups. The first group comprised
roughly seventy percent of hackers glob-
ally. They described this group as being
savvy, but unable to cause much trouble
when minimal security precautions were
in place. I’ve compiled a list of measures
you can take to protect your family from
these individuals. Change it up - Don’t use the same
password for multiple sites. Every-
one has a “go to” password, but in
this day and age, that is not safe.
One simple adjustment is to add a
few characters to the end of your
password for each website. For ex-
ample, add the letters “Tw” to the
beginning or end of your password
for Twitter. This way you can use a
similar password for each site, but
still have some security in the event
of a data breach.
Creating smart, complex passwords
are the first step in securing your on-
line presence. Most of us have two or Complex passwords are good, but a
password manager is a much better solu-
tion.
Passwords
18 WNY Family May 2019
Password Manager
A password manager is a service
designed to help you create strong pass-
words and keep those passwords safe.
The service can generate and store long,
complex passwords to replace existing
passwords you may be using. The appli-
cation encrypts your data in your “vault”
and automatically enters the pertinent
information for each site you visit. Au-
tomatically filling in the data prevents
hackers or malicious software from
stealing your information as you type in.
Password managers can keep track of
more than just passwords, too. They can
hold credit card information, addresses,
PINs, and other sensitive information
that websites ask for when making a pur-
chase. Many security experts view this
as one of the best ways to secure your
online presence.
This all may sound highly compli-
cated, but in reality, password managers
are quite simple to use. The most chal-
lenging part is choosing which password
manager to trust. I recommend LastPass.
It is straightforward to work with, in-
cludes a smartphone app, and provides
several helpful features. A yearly sub-
scription costs $36 and includes pre-
mium features that are well worth the
investment. For example, if you believe
your account has been comprised, Last-
Pass can automatically change your
password to many major websites with
the click of a button. Dashlane and
Keeper are also good options to consider
if LastPass isn’t for you.
HaveIBeenPwned
Now you know how to create strong
passwords and secure them. How do
you know if your information was part
of a security breach and is now floating
around online? Every state has enacted
legislation requiring organizations to no-
tify individuals when a security breach
involving their data occurs. The laws are
all a bit different, and big corporations
have ways to delay those notifications for
months after a violation is discovered.
Troy Hunt, a regional director at
Microsoft, created a website to help
people determine if their data is at risk.